Monday, February 4, 2013

Warm Bodies (2013)

Title: Warm Bodies (2013)

Director: Jonathan Levine

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich, Rob
Corddry

Review:

The thing with Warm Bodies is that I initially thought I’d
hate it, I went in with my bag of rotting vegetables, ready to throw them at the screen. To me it looked like it was going to be the Twilight of
zombie movies and in some ways it is and in some ways it isn’t. What Twilight
did with vampire movies is it softened them up; it turned the monsters into the
heroes. It turned blood sucking creatures into beings who sparkle in the
moonlight; it made vampires for lack of a better word, ‘cute’. And Warm Bodies does soften up the zombie
film, it’s main character is a walking corpse, but you wouldn’t notice if you
saw him from afar, except for the pale skin and a couple of scars. And yes my
friends, let’s not forget this is a film about a zombie who falls in love with
a human girl! So yeah, zombie movies are getting the Twilight treatment in a
way, just compare Warm Bodies main zombie with the Edward Cullen character from Twilight, and you'll see they don't look all that different. Going into the theater I thought, “That’s it for zombie movies!” I don’t
want my zombies falling in love; I want them mindless and brain hungry! But
whatever, this being a zombie movie and me being a zombie movie nut, I decided
to give it the benefit of the doubt. Strange thing is I ended up enjoying Warm
Bodies!

Warm Bodies tells the story of ‘R’ a zombie who wants to be
something more than just a zombie. He wants’ to improve himself, better
himself, and maybe even be human someday. Everything starts one day when R is
on one of his food runs (i.e. looking for humans to eat) when he stumbles upon
a group of rebellious humans who are fighting against the zombie hoards. In the
middle of the battle, R notices a young human girl named Julie and its love at
first site, and well, R starts to feel, his heart starts beating! Should R
follow through with his feelings for Julie? Or are their worlds too different
for them to fall in love?

One of the things I dug about Warm Bodies is that it
actually delivers a couple of original ideas, number one, the idea that a
zombie can go back to being human is one that hadn’t been done before in zombie
films, and least not in any that I can remember. And number two that a zombie
could fall in love with a human and vice versa. Now in a worn genre like the
zombie movie, well, originality is a welcomed thing! The film presented us with
one or two original concepts, which proves at least the filmmakers where aiming
for something different.

The idea that we can hear a zombie’s interior monologue is a
good one, again, I don’t believe I’d ever seen that done before. The idea is
that R is conscious of his zombie state, but can do nothing about it. He sees
himself act as a zombie, but thinks like a normal human being. Of course, to
zombie purists this makes no sense whatsoever because zombies are walking
corpses. Rationality, logic or thought normally don’t fit into the equation.
But this isn’t your typical zombie movie and in the world of Warm Bodies zombies
that think do exist. The idea is that R hasn’t been dead for long and isn’t as
far off dead as the ‘Bonies’, which are zombies that are so dead that they literally
look like walking skeletons. So I guess the filmmakers behind Warm Bodies bent
zombie rules just a bit, as does every movie. All movies create their own
universe and rules, in the universe Warm Bodies, zombies can think just fine.

Another good thing that Warm Bodies has going for it is that
it’s a socially conscious zombie film, you kind of get the feeling that
something like this is what George Romero would be doing nowadays, but of
course, less cute. Recently I saw a Quentin Tarantino interview, in which he
states that every director has his day, makes great films then their time
passes and they get old and no longer make great films; though I still haven’t
lost my faith in him, I feel this is exactly what happened to George Romero. To
me old age got to him and he lost it. His last one, Survival of the Dead (2009)
was a huge disappointment for me. Though not all that bad, it failed to live up
to Romero’s post-apocalyptic glory gory days. Warm Bodies reminded me a bit of
Romero’s socially conscious zombie films. Warm Bodies portrays modern society as
robots, automatons who are growing increasingly disconnected from one another
thanks to I-Pads and cell phones. I
really dug how Warm Bodies explores class differences by infusing the film with
a bit of Romeo and Juliet into the story. Same as Romero and Juliet, R and
Julie come from completely different backgrounds. Julie is one of the human
survivors; she lives inside of a walled city that still manages to have some
comforts while R lives inside of an abandoned plane, in a zombie filled
neighborhood. Yet they come together, because together, they will change
everything. There’s even a balcony scene, so if anyone had any doubts about it,
yeah this is a zombie version of Romeo and Juliet. By the way, the actress who plays Julie -Teresa Palmer- is a true beauty, I really hope we see more of her on the silver screen, and soon!

So that’s it for me ladies and gent’s, I say Warm Bodies is
a good zombie film. It might get a little too cutesy at times, especially when
it comes down to zombies thinking, talking, feeling, and falling in love, but
it’s still entertaining and has something to say. A word of warning to zombie
fans, there’s not much in the way of blood and guts, though brains are eaten
the gory details are left in shadows or out of camera. I also thought that the
‘Bonies’ looked too CGI, they could have pulled those off a little better, I
didn’t buy into those things being real at all. But the idea of the film, the
concept that a corpse can come back to life through the power of love, is a
splendid one. So is the concept that in a world that is constantly trying to
dehumanize us, it’s important that we remember how to feel and emote, to
communicate and help each other out. I enjoyed how the film emphasizes the
importance of every day good deeds, simple things that make this world a more pleasant
one to live in. That if we only put more of an effort into actually feeling
emotions and interacting with other human beings, then maybe we can change
things and make things in this world better, and though these are not the usual
concepts we’d expect in a zombie movie, well, I still had a blast with Warm
Bodies. Recommended!

Thanks Dan O., a lot of people are saying that this film is a part of the "pussyfication of horror". I actually got a message on facebook where someone says "dont let this happen to zombie movies, like this post if you are against the pussyfication of horror", I get where they are coming from, but I dont agree, this is just a different type of zombie film, doesnt mean every zombie film is going to be like Romeo and Juliet now...